Game Over
by Shadow-Cipher
Summary: A more sinister approach to the arcade classic - rewriting Pacman as a vicious monster taking down all the lost, frightened souls.


It was a simple time, all those years ago. Even as the decades of the past slowly descended into the mist, time still ticked, the days continued to pass. To many foreign souls, the world might have seemed almost too simple, a bare bones cut out of what could have been a vast universe within which thousands could play. However, what many failed to realize, is that this was far closer to the truth than possible.

The halls were dark, featureless, and barren. No matter where one turned, it almost seemed as though an end were never in sight. Lost souls would turn corner after corner, and even when it looked like a path to the light may finally show itself, the corridor to what definitely should have been freedom turned into nothing more than a mockery of space and time itself. It was as though this nameless world was built entirely to consume, to allow otherworldly beings the once in a lifetime chance to inflict misery and woe upon those lesser than them.

This lifeless, meaningless world had seen so many lives lost, and the cries of these damned souls would never be heard, never mourned. Every death was without consequence, it seemed, and though they seemed vicious, the creatures living within were hardly such. It all started as good fun – a game of cat and mouse, have you – but soon what began as harmless tomfoolery turned into an unholy stream of mass genocide, assaults from a faceless killer. Even as each soul seemed to claim the being's life, it would return, gnashing its teeth fiercely at the souls wandering the halls. The souls fought and fought, but even when victory was theirs, the world seemed to reset, an eternal cycle of death and misery repeated until the end of time.

From deep within the pitch black halls of an unknown world wandered a small spirit, an adorable being whose existence had been all but forgotten. The being has been excited when the world around it seemed to gleam with life, and when an opening presented itself, the being raced from within the confines of its eternal prison with glee, hoping that today might finally be the day freedom would grace the being with its presence.

It didn't take long for the little being to realize it was once again horribly lost within this maze, and its little eyes darted back and forth as it attempted to get its bearings on the featureless world surrounding it. A sense of discomfort began to crawl into the being, and paranoia lead to ridiculous ideas of being watched, and hunted.

The little being paused for a fleeting moment, thinking about its next move. The being had no idea where it was going, or what it was doing, and it could only hope to find a marker, an odd object, anything that would lead it to freedom.

Assuming there was an escape at all.

Within all the years the little being had been trapped within this eternal maze, it began to wonder if there was a way out at all. It and its companions had spent so many ages seemingly wandering, and though to many it looked as though they were acts of random frivolity, in all actuality, they were the desperate attempts of tormented souls to finally escape their hell.

The being wanted to escape this maze, escape the thing that pursued it relentless. After all this time, the being wanted nothing more than to put an end to this fruitless cycle of death and rebirth, to finally find solace.

The being tilted its body as it heard a strange noise to its right. It remained firm in place as it gazed curiously down a dark hallway, confused, paranoid. The being had heard this bizarre sound before, and the mere mention of it – nonetheless hearing it – triggered a surge of thoughts, fears, and even excitement within the confines of the being's head.

That had to be him, the monster that hunted the being for all these years. The being pictured it, the yellow monstrosity gnawing its teeth menacingly as it relentlessly raced through the halls of the track, snatching each and every marker the spirits had meticulously placed. It seemed as though the monster were at it again, snatching the markers, returning the maze to a series of undefined dark hallways.

This had to stop.

The being quickly raced down the halls, attempting to pursue the noise. At this moment, it felt confident enough that the strange monster would be at a disadvantage. Despite its fierce appearance, the spirit had learned over time that it usually went down with relative ease. The monster seemingly disintegrated at the touch of the being – or its friends.

Then it was back.

It would always come back.

That didn't stop the being, nor did it stop its companions either. They all wandered the maze endlessly, attempting to hunt down that monster and slay it once and for all, stop it from consuming everything that was ever important to them, put an end to its reign of terror.

When the little being turned a corner, it noticed the monster had vanished from sight. The thing was a slippery bastard, and the being knew this well. It took a second to listen, though this second was short lived, for that familiar noise chirped in the spirit's ears once more.

Without thinking, the being charged, pursued that irksome sound as soon as it became clear. So many times had the being lost the monster, and the constant irritating failures only fueled it even further to track that thing down. The being kept a steady pace, moving as quickly as the world would allow it to, never hesitating, mind racing. Then, for a fleeting moment, the being saw a flash of yellow to the right of its head. The monster! There it was! Without a moment to consider the repercussions of such a choice, the spirit charged towards the yellow flash, rounding the corner.

It was face to face with him, the yellow monster that had consumed so many of its loved one, that had constantly refused to simply die. Its mouth was agape, and the being bristled with anger simply by staring at the creature. The being charged, and the monster immediately turned the other direction and fled, seamlessly gliding across the ground at high speeds. The being refused to relent, and kept on its tail as it dodged around the corners. The being spotted its friends out of the corner of its eyes once or twice, but this did not cause it to hesitate. It continued the assault, dedication willing it to finally secure the defeat of this abomination.

The yellow monster suddenly turned into a pitch black corridor, and though the being struggled to see what was at the other side, this did not cause it to cease pursuit. It raced into the pitch black hall, darkness consuming every corner of its vision. The yellow monster was invisible, but the noise that it unleashed as it hustled from place to place was as crystal clear as ever, and confirmed to the spirit that despite what its eyes might claim, that monster was still there.

Light began to glow into the eyes of the being, and as it exited the darkness to continue pursuit, it realized the monster had seemingly vanished. Anger welled up within the being, and it refused to accept that it had once again fallen for this trick.

Those dark halls were horrible. Every time the yellow monster turned down them, the being found that it completely lost track of them upon exit, the darkness which a creature like itself should have yearned for instead betraying it in favour of an abomination.

The being charged blindly, though it did not know if it was going the correct way or not.

As time passed, the being searched more and more for an exit, still failing, feeling as though this world did not actually have an escape. The yellow monster appeared a couple more times, but like before, expertly evaded the cold touch of the being.

Soon, the being was completely lost again, wandering within dead silence. The yellow monster were nowhere to be seen, nor were any of its allies. The halls were all beginning to look the same, devoid of life, as the monster consumed the little markers. The being turned a corner to find sitting in front of it a single white orb, and though small, the dim glow it released felt almost comforting at this point. The monster had missed this marker, left it alone in a hallway of nothing. The being approached the white orb without even thinking, eyes locked on its mysterious glow. It pained the little creature to think there had once been so many of these marking what locations of the maze the group had been to, only for them to all be gone this quickly. This marker was meaningless alone, but it allowed a glimmer of hope to burn within the soul of the spirit.

As the spirit stared at the orb, it began to feel heavy, exhausted almost. It was as though wandering the maze had consumed all energy. The being exhaled heavily, the weakness slowly consuming it. The being glanced at its own figure, and terror entered its mind as it noticed something.

It was glowing dark blue.

Horror outlined the being's face once it realized this, and the danger settled in quickly. The being leaped backwards as a small white object flew past its face, piercing the wall as though it did not physically exist. A cry of agony echoed down the hallway. Then another.

The being fled.

It ran without purpose, trying as hard as it could to not allow the weakness to hold it back.

The being refused to be killed by that yellow monster.

The next scream of agony appeared closer.

The being turned around, and when it did, it was greeted by the gnashing teeth of the yellow monster. While the sight of the monster usually enraged it, this time was an exception. The weakness the being felt within its entire essence immediately put it at an extreme disadvantage, and for every single time the monster would turn tail and run, it now charged directly at its weakened foe, an enemy once too potent to retaliate against now whittled down to pitiful prey.

Fleeing seemed fruitless, for the monster was much faster than the being at this point, but there was nothing else it could do for now. All it could do was flee, flee and hope that the weakness would vanish before the enemy consumed it.

The being had been through this encounter before, and it knew that if enough time passed, the weakness would vanish eventually. It just needed time, but the problem was, the spirit didn't know if it had enough time to waste before death would greet it once again. The image of being thrown back to the center of the maze flashed before its eyes, and the terror of so much wasted time was a difficult weight to bear.

With every fiber of the spirit's being, it pushed itself ahead.

The yellow monster drew closer, and closer.

The being could feel energy slowly returning to its body. It just needed a few more moments to recuperate.

The yellow monster's breath was upon the being's backside now, spittle flying from its teeth as it gnashed menacingly at the little being. The being pushed itself as hard as it could, horrified at the warm breath, the moist saliva.

The being howled in terror as darkness consumed it. The jaws of the yellow monster surrounded the being's entire body, and the eternal darkness surrounded the being instantly. Time seemed to stop, and the being's life flashed in front of its eyes, the fruitless events which lead up to this very encounter seemed to almost be playing in reverse. The being felt as though it were flying through a dimension constructed entirely of dead dreams and broken hearts, the entire past, every life it had ever seen lost nothing more but a joke, a mere object the monster would laugh at. Life and time went on for the monster, but it seemed fruitless for the being, a loop of misery, and like every other time, it hurt inside, tore the spirit apart. The spinning threads of destiny and time soon silenced, and the pain of death became meaningless.

The gates opened for the being, and without thinking, it raced into the unknown halls.


End file.
